Video Games: Devils Die Twice

[Werthead]

5 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Wow. Anthem really did break folks didn't it?

Good. Harsh truths need knowing.

EA and BioWare have been going down the toilet for absolutely years. This is not a recent development.

Quote

 

I'm with you. I love the Witcher 3, but it does not scratch the same itch for me as a great Bioware game, despite some similarities. It is nice that there are games like Tyranny and Pillars and Divinity out, but CRPGs really aren't my thing (though Tyranny was pretty great); there's no studio I can think of these days that offers a AAA party experience with companions you get to know over the course of the game. I hope Dragon Age 4 scratches that itch.

 

That's a weirdly very specific thing you're looking at, especially since you're not classifying ME or DA as CRPGS. ME was never really a proper CRPG in the first place in the mechanical sense (in the actual role-playing sense, sure), but DA definitely started out that way. Dragon Age: Origins is absolutely comparable to most of the games I mentioned, and the Divinity games are definitely superior to it at least. They're not technically AAA but they're certainly not cheap either.

It sounds like Banner Saga should hit the spot on the character development side of things (except you get to know them over the course of 3 games, not 1 at a time). Alpha Protocol also definitely hits that same spot of character development of companions who accompany you on missions, as long as you don't mind the occasional jank in gameplay. Fallout 4 and Fallout: New Vegas also allow you to play the games right through with companion characters with distinct personalities who impact on the storyline (the earlier Bethesda games definitely don't do that, companions are just extra inventory space and an occasional helping hand in combat).

For upcoming games the next thing that might fit in there is Cyberpunk 2077, which isn't completely party-based but you can spend quite a lot of the game with NPC allies with distinctive characters and mercenaries you can hire for missions, but it's unclear how important this will be. I mean, The Witcher 3 has astonishing character development of the supporting cast of characters, but it's relatively rare that you'll fight alongside characters in the gameplay itself.

Also, weird segue but it sounds like the next Star Wars movie may be directly based on Knights of the Old Republic.

[Ramsay B.]

I guess I’m at the endgame of Sekiro as shit is getting wild.

Spoiler

Ashina is burning and I ran into some dude with red eyes. He destroyed me. I think I’m gonna farm some(a spot I’ve found at Fountainhead is perfect)and get my power up 1 or 2 more. My AP is 11 now and I read that there is a soft cap at 14.

 

[Fez]

On 5/23/2019 at 8:14 PM, Werthead said:

That's a weirdly very specific thing you're looking at, especially since you're not classifying ME or DA as CRPGS. ME was never really a proper CRPG in the first place in the mechanical sense (in the actual role-playing sense, sure), but DA definitely started out that way. Dragon Age: Origins is absolutely comparable to most of the games I mentioned, and the Divinity games are definitely superior to it at least. They're not technically AAA but they're certainly not cheap either.

I think its a pretty straightforward request really, which is for high-budget, well-done party-based RPGs. And there really is a world of difference (for some people at least, including me) between the former heights of Bioware, who were pretty much the only AAA studio in that space, and the myriad isometric, CRPGs.

It's not necessarily that Bioware had better writing (though sometimes it did), I adore the writing in Shadowrun and The Banner Saga for instance. But Bioware had the budget for the graphics and voice acting that made their worlds and characters feel so much more alive. I cared so much more about Garrus or Isabella than I did Eiger or Hakon because the Bioware games had the budget to make them feel alive rather than just be text on the screen; and often to give them more and larger conversations and roles in the main plot.

But Bioware sucks now. And the isometric CRPGs are getting more ambitious, but may never have the budget to reach what Bioware used to be able to do (though maybe Divinity Original Sin III, whenever that is, will be). So a lot of times the only option for a high-budget, well-done party-based RPG is to get something from Japan, but that has its own drawbacks; like almost always being an on-rails experience and generally requiring a high degree of tolerance for anime bullshit (which I say lovingly).

Although, I personally, am more accepting for solo-character RPGs, so long as there are sufficient supporting characters who get large amounts of screen time and character development, like The Witcher 3.

[Toth]

On 5/23/2019 at 2:41 AM, The Anti-Targ said:

I've been playing the first Divinity co-op on and off for quite a while. There's a lot to commend it. But I play Dragon Age as much for story and character as for game, and for me I haven't really found a party-based RPG that measures up to Dragon Age (or Mass Effect 1-3) for story and character.

Divine Divinity had a co-op?

[Werthead]

13 minutes ago, Toth said:

Divine Divinity had a co-op?

I think they meant, "the first Divinity anyone actually heard of in a broad context."

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 5/22/2019 at 5:46 PM, briantw said:

I'd rank both of the recent Divinity games over any Dragon Age game, personally.   The first Pillars of Eternity was pretty good too.

I think Dragon Age has been pretty mediocre from Day 1. I think my XBOX experience lessened the first one quite a bit (I played PC version years later, and I found the fights much more tolerable), but no matter where it landed, it was a bland, drab looking game. None of the characters felt very strong to me aside from Morrigan and Leliana. 

Of all the Dragon Ages, I think I had more fun with 2, but even then, it was a less than amazing experience.

It's so weird looking back though at Dragon Age 2 releasing close to the Witcher 2. At the time, the Witcher 2 was considered nothing, DA2 was the premium RPG to look forward to. By the time Witcher 3 and Dragon Age 3 came out though that was fundamentally flipped. Bioware doesn't have the same people working for it, and that's the problem. This happened with another studio I love--Piranha Bytes. I loved the first two Gothic games, but by the third game they lost some core people responsible for those first two. Every game since has just never felt the same.

[Corvinus85]

I've been playing the new Total War game, Three Kingdoms. I only have about 8 hours in. I'm finding it quite addicting, though I was really apprehensive at first. The game borrows from previous titles (Medieval II, Shogun 2, Rome II & Attila, Thrones of Britannia, and Warhammer), and adds new features, at the same time taking out a few.

At the heart of it is the characters. While you could say you play with a faction, you're really playing with characters. The factions are defined by their leaders. Developing your characters in the most optimal way both for governing your faction, and for war, is critical, and that includes having good relations between characters. For example, generals who fight together in battle will develop stronger bonds, which translate to additional bonuses.

It has the most complex diplomacy and economy systems of any TW game. Like in Shogun 2, food is an important resource, but more so, I think. You can use it in your trade deals. Trading territories is back.

The army organization and recruitment is interesting. You can have a total of 3 generals in an army, and each general brings their own "retinue" which can be a max of 6 units. Thus, counting the generals, you'll have 21 units in an army. Recruiting is similar to Thrones of Britannia, but units no longer cost food. For the first time ever, you can't combine partially depleted stacks into full stacks, you have to wait for the units to replenish or proceed with what you got. There are different general classes, each type allowing for the recruitment of certain unique units, on top of the different bonuses they provide. 

The UI looks nice, and full of information. I don't know how many factions are in total, but the turn taking is fast, and the game runs pretty smoothly. It does have a steeper learning curve due to all the new features. It has a pretty good soundtrack; I really like the main menu music.

The battles are still more of the same, but they can have their fun moments. You can choose to play a campaign in Romance mode, or Records mode. Records is the purely historical one, and all generals have cavalry bodyguards, and the battles may take a little longer. Romance borrows some of the fantasy elements from the novel, the main feature being that generals are OP individuals on the field, not as OP as in Warhammer, but still capable of inflicting lots of damage. Duels can take place between generals, with the rest of the troops leaving them be as they fight. 

One part where CA got lazy is the unit cards. There are 2 options, the grey shadows that only highlight the weapons, which most people hated, and the traditional fully painted cards. You can easily distinguish between units of different classes, but it's harder to distinguish between similar units. For example, I've so far discovered 4 units of foot archers, and there only minute differences on how they look, which could be a problem in the middle of a battle.

[Martell Spy]

30 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

I've been playing the new Total War game, Three Kingdoms. I only have about 8 hours in. I'm finding it quite addicting, though I was really apprehensive at first. The game borrows from previous titles (Medieval II, Shogun 2, Rome II & Attila, Thrones of Britannia, and Warhammer), and adds new features, at the same time taking out a few.

At the heart of it is the characters. While you could say you play with a faction, you're really playing with characters. The factions are defined by their leaders. Developing your characters in the most optimal way both for governing your faction, and for war, is critical, and that includes having good relations between characters. For example, generals who fight together in battle will develop stronger bonds, which translate to additional bonuses.

It has the most complex diplomacy and economy systems of any TW game. Like in Shogun 2, food is an important resource, but more so, I think. You can use it in your trade deals. Trading territories is back.

The army organization and recruitment is interesting. You can have a total of 3 generals in an army, and each general brings their own "retinue" which can be a max of 6 units. Thus, counting the generals, you'll have 21 units in an army. Recruiting is similar to Thrones of Britannia, but units no longer cost food. For the first time ever, you can't combine partially depleted stacks into full stacks, you have to wait for the units to replenish or proceed with what you got. There are different general classes, each type allowing for the recruitment of certain unique units, on top of the different bonuses they provide. 

The UI looks nice, and full of information. I don't know how many factions are in total, but the turn taking is fast, and the game runs pretty smoothly. It does have a steeper learning curve due to all the new features. It has a pretty good soundtrack; I really like the main menu music.

The battles are still more of the same, but they can have their fun moments. You can choose to play a campaign in Romance mode, or Records mode. Records is the purely historical one, and all generals have cavalry bodyguards, and the battles may take a little longer. Romance borrows some of the fantasy elements from the novel, the main feature being that generals are OP individuals on the field, not as OP as in Warhammer, but still capable of inflicting lots of damage. Duels can take place between generals, with the rest of the troops leaving them be as they fight. 

One part where CA got lazy is the unit cards. There are 2 options, the grey shadows that only highlight the weapons, which most people hated, and the traditional fully painted cards. You can easily distinguish between units of different classes, but it's harder to distinguish between similar units. For example, I've so far discovered 4 units of foot archers, and there only minute differences on how they look, which could be a problem in the middle of a battle.

Thanks for the info. I'm a fan of the old Romance of the 3 Kingdoms games. Also, a fan of many TW games. So, this is a perfect storm for me. I'm definitely going to pick this up at some point.

[Fez]

I've been playing the Total War: Three Kingdoms game too, and, yeah, it's good stuff. My only real complaint is one that I have with a lot of strategy games (except Civ5 and Stellaris interestingly, so it doesn't need to be a problem), which is that the UI scaling is really bad/non-existent. So for someone like me, who plays PC games from the couch with my TV as monitor, it's damn near impossible to read any of the text. I had to pull out a bean-bag chair and put it in front of the coffee table to sit in so I could play the game at all. I know people have been asking CA for options to increase font/UI sizes for years and it's never happened, so my main hope is that eventually someone puts out a mod to do it. That's been the only way I was able to play EUIV from the couch.

Other than that, which wouldn't be a problem anyway for people who have normal PC monitors, it seems like a really good game. I'm more of a Three Kingdoms fan than a Total War fan, and I find playing through too many battles to be rather tedious. But, even with delegating all but the most important battles to the AI, I've still got tons to do and have been having a blast. 

One thing I really enjoy, which I think the game is doing better than any of the ROTK games (at least, of the ones I've played, 7, 8, 9, and 10) is being able to strike a balance between keeping the flavor of the the time period and the characters while not having the game be an on-rails reenactment of what happened historically. There are some events (as Liu Bei I did get the option to defend Tao Qain from Cao Cao if I wanted, and that led to me inheriting Tao's lands shortly after) but the ability to trigger them seems much looser than ROTK. For example, after Lu Bu killed Dong Zhou, Dong Min took over and mostly kept that power base intact; and the game has been able to adjust so that some of the events of the mid 190s are still triggering (when it makes sense) despite the continued dominance of the Dong faction over the Emperor and the northwest of the empire.

Right now, I'm actually in a coalition with Dong Min and Wang Lang to crush Cao Cao between us, and things are going well so far, though his main army is still out there. My main concerns besides Cao are whether Yuan Shao starts snowballing in the north, which I've read online is very common currently, and the continued nuisance of some Yellow Turban remnants (these ones have been around since the start of the game, but new rebellions can pop up all the time).

One mechanic that I really enjoy is that there is a vassal state called the Han Empire, which is controlled by whichever faction controls the Emperor. It's not very powerful (at least, not in the AI's hands, maybe a player controlling the Emperor would be different) but it has a ton of territory throughout the empire that the other factions can deal with in different ways. For instance, as Liu Bei I have a special resource called Unity, which has a few different uses, one of which is that it can be used to take of Han Empire territory without a fight. I think its a neat way of reflecting the fact that the country didn't just completely dissolve in 190 (when the game starts), and that there were still the remnants of the old government for many years, it just didn't have any power over the warlords.

[Corvinus85]

Yes, the fact that you have tons to do within one turn is great. In TW: Warhammer, early game often was just doing one thing, then ending the turn, and waiting for the slog until your next turn. Not so in Three Kingdoms.

I do feel cheated by Dong Zhuo always dying early. You can unlock him if you declare yourself emperor, so that's late game stuff, or if you defeat him in battle, which is nigh impossible, since his assassination takes place so early.

 

[Jace, Extat]

I've only played a few turns but being Bandit Queen is sort of a lifetime dream since killing Twinblades.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 5/26/2019 at 3:39 AM, Toth said:

Divine Divinity had a co-op?

Noob mistake, I thought Divinity: Original Sin was the first.

[Fez]

It's now 204 and my Liu Bei has "accidentally" turned into a slightly delayed Cao Cao. My coalition with Dong Min worked perfectly and we crushed Cao between us, he and most of his family were killed in combat (except Xiahou Dun who joined me after the dust settled and is my third most valuable general after Zhang Fei and Guan Yu) and his faction was destroyed. Around now is when Kong Rong made a terrible mistake and attacked me, after I destroyed his army he submitted as my vassal without me taking a single county from him. 

Shortly, I saw just how many wars Dong Min was fighting (looks like being master of the Han Empire vassal state kinda sucks, everyone attacks it constantly) and I realized I needed to get out of that relationship and left the coalition. At the time, I was thinking my next wave of expansion would be against my western neighbor, Yuan Shu (also, I'm used to ROTK games, where Yuan Shu is easy pickings that everyone hates) so I created a new coalition with Yuan Shao to my north.

Unfortunately, that was the moment when Yuan Shao decided to do what so many people on the internet have complained about and he started vassalizing almost every minor power in the region; including Kong Zhou, Wang Lang, and Zhang Chao who comprised my entire southern border. This meant I had no room for expansion except through Yuan Shu, who was I beginning to rethink attacking since he'd been such a good trade partner and was in a coalition with Liu Baio. Also, I realized I needed to do something about Yuan Shao before he snowballed too much out of control.

My decision was made easy when Gongsun Zan, who was finally terminally losing his war against Yuan Shao asked to be my vassal to get out of the fight. I agreed, which tanked my relationship with Yuan Shao and I decided to strike before he could. I left my coalition with him (and got the Untrustworthy penalty for doing so since it hadn't been long) and joined a coalition with Yuan Shu (for some reason he and Liu Biao's coalition had ended, and also Huang Zu switched from being Liu Biao's vassal to being Yuan Shu's vassal; not sure why, they didn't fight a war). When Yuan Shu went to war with Yuan Shao, I did as well, and I've now conquered all three of Kong Zhou, Wang Lang, and Zhango Chao so I now border the Yangtze river. My armies have begun crossing the Yellow river, and Yuan Shu has already taken a couple counties north of the river. My vassals Kong Rong and Gongsun Zan also seem to have been slightly wrecking Yuan Shao while I was mopping up my southern border. So thinks are going well.

During this war my prestige hit the point where I was named Duke, the first faction to do so in the game, and the Duchy of Shu-Han (and its vassals) stretches from the ocean to right outside the gates of Luoyang and from the Yellow River to the Yangtze river. I am the most powerful faction currently, though not by a huge amount. Thanks to fog of war I don't know much about what's going on south of the Yangtze, but from various stats and announcements it seems like Sun Jian is becoming a southern superpower down there. The former Yellow-Turban turned bandit lord Gong Du seems to have taken over all of Liu Yan's territory and is holding is own against Dong Min, so he'll be a challenge longterm. Dong Min split Han Sui from Ma Teng and conquered almost all his territory (Ma Teng is wedged between Dong Min and Gong Du) and has been taking on all comers the entire game. Yuan Shu will eventually be a threat too and I have a long, vulnerable border with him.

If I can conquer all of Yuan Shao's lands I may become unstoppable, but I don't think I'll manage it in this war. He still has three full stacks of armies, and most of the northern bandit tribes are his vassals, which, because of the way military supplies scale in favor of one-county vassals, means his total forces outnumber mine by quite a bit still.

So, the war continues and I still don't have an heir despite being married for over 15 years. I know births are at least partially randomized and can get you generic family members. But for someone like Liu Bei, who had children famous enough to also be in the game, I don't know if those generics are an option or if I need to wait until 208 and then Liu Chan will be born.

[Corvinus85]

I've started and stopped about 3 campaigns now in Three Kingdoms. mostly to try to get my feet wet. Keeping your generals/court officers happy is the biggest thorn in my side. 

Things were going reasonably well in my Gongsun Zan campaign. I had a fair bit of land in the north, but some of the AI were far outstripping me. Some of those factions are really aggressive. I was in a coalition with Liu Bei, Sun Jian, and Kong Rong. Both Bei and Rong used the Yellow River to send armies west, and beat the crap out of the western warlords, while Jian was dominating the south. I was about to launch a war against the Yuan faction (Shao had died, his heir was in place), when Zan decided to die of natural causes at age 56, and thus I lost my best general. And my enemy was stronger.

I then started a campaign with Sun Jian. In all my other campaigns, Sun Jian became dominant of his surroundings, and I thought, with all the perks he has, I could maybe succeed. I got my ass kicked in the first major battle with Liu Biao, because I refused to hand over the Imperial Jade Seal. Yeah...

Now I started a campaign with Kong Rong, to see if I can forge an economic empire.

[Fez]

20 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

Keeping your generals/court officers happy is the biggest thorn in my side. 

I've realized this is one of the other perks Liu Bei has. When his unity gets high he starts getting additional administrator slots, allowing him to give more generals court positions to keep them happy. Between that, giving away the tons of otherwise useless ancillaries I keep getting, and Zhang Fei and Guan Yu having both permanent and renewable temporary satisfaction bonus to keep them from ever leaving, I've had no problem with unhappy generals.

Also, I married Tao Qian's widow back when I inherited his lands, which meant that all his family members gained the bonus for being related to the ruler. That also helped.

[Corvinus85]

37 minutes ago, Fez said:

I've realized this is one of the other perks Liu Bei has. When his unity gets high he starts getting additional administrator slots, allowing him to give more generals court positions to keep them happy. Between that, giving away the tons of otherwise useless ancillaries I keep getting, and Zhang Fei and Guan Yu having both permanent and renewable temporary satisfaction bonus to keep them from ever leaving, I've had no problem with unhappy generals.

Also, I married Tao Qian's widow back when I inherited his lands, which meant that all his family members gained the bonus for being related to the ruler. That also helped.

Yes, I find there's a delicate balance between it all that I have yet to master. Being able to maintain enough strong armies isn't dependent only on your income, which was enough for previous TW games.

[Ramsay B.]

I finally beat Sekiro. 

Spoiler

The Sword Saint was a pain in the ass. Stages 1 and 2 were easy enough, but the last 2 stages sucked. There was a lot of running for my life in big circles. I almost blew it at the end too, which might’ve been bad for my controller. 

I needed help from YouTube with 1-2 of the earlier bosses before I got used to everything, but most of the fun was learning the patterns and all that. I also hate to cheese anything, but I had to with the Demon of Hatred. I figured he was optional anyways and I just wanted that extra power for Isshin. Fun game but I need to move on to something easier next.

 

[Toth]

On 5/27/2019 at 3:22 AM, The Anti-Targ said:

Noob mistake, I thought Divinity: Original Sin was the first.

Don't worry (even though I was actually confused which one you meant). I guess that means I'm even more of a noob because Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity were the only games of the series that I ever played. I remember that I was quite out of my depth not driving my characters against a wall in the skill trees in the first game and reach a dead-end somewhere where everything could kill me with a sneeze and I was utterly hopeless. In Beyond Divinity I never went beyond the first dungeon, even though the idea of a role-playing game as a buddy comedy with a paladin and a demon being psychically chained together and having to work together to undo the curse very amusing.

Also: I really like reading the Three Kingdoms recaps. I don't understand a thing, given my unfamiliarity with the novel, but it looks like CA did a decent job for a change in their handling of the campaign map (even though I don't think I could ever appreciate a fake diplomacy where the only difficulty stems from everyone being insanely aggressive now that know Paradox games and how amazingly those handle diplomacy that actually feels somewhat real). I have grown out of this series however mostly due to the increased Hollywood-ification of the battles that robbed me of all the fun of actually using strategic maneuvering when everything devolves into a nonsensical clusterfuck of motion-captured duels. Given the setting... that actually feels somewhat right in its fantasy mode, but it sounds like the historical mode doesn't work much differently except for the heroes. So I give this another pass as well.

 

What did I play in the meantime? Since it was given away for free on Humble, I was actually playing a bit "Jalopy" recently. It is a very amusing little indie-game. Taking place in 1990 shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall you play a young man who drives his uncle through half of Eastern Europe to Istanbul to scatter the ashes of your father. The catch is that the car you are using is a (oddly off-brand, no idea why) Trabant 601. The most iconic car of Eastern Germany and still total and utter garbage. It's a road trip survival game where you are constantly fighting against the imminent death of your Trabbi, while at the same time juggling your non-existent funds that you gather through trading (read: smuggling) goods over the borders or scavenging from wrecked cars next to the road.

It is very simple and yet oddly addictive. The balancing is great. No matter how much money you earn, it doesn't look like you ever reach a point where you are not in constant fear of bankruptcy. That's because your car needs a constant flow of costly repairs. Even if you outfit it with the best parts available, it's still shit and will become a flaming wreck if you dare to pass two countries without repairs. I already finished the story and yet I still drive around a bit, trying to earn money to buy a tool rack for my boot.

[Fez]

4 minutes ago, Toth said:

Also: I really like reading the Three Kingdoms recaps. I don't understand a thing, given my unfamiliarity with the novel, but it looks like CA did a decent job for a change in their handling of the campaign map (even though I don't think I could ever appreciate a fake diplomacy where the only difficulty stems from everyone being insanely aggressive now that know Paradox games and how amazingly those handle diplomacy that actually feels somewhat real). I have grown out of this series however mostly due to the increased Hollywood-ification of the battles that robbed me of all the fun of actually using strategic maneuvering when everything devolves into a nonsensical clusterfuck of motion-captured duels. Given the setting... that actually feels somewhat right in its fantasy mode, but it sounds like the historical mode doesn't work much differently except for the heroes. So I give this another pass as well.

The diplomacy is actually a bit more nuanced then that, at least in the early- and mid-game. From what I've read, Emperors can't really interact with other Emperors though, so the end game of three powers (which in my game is looking like it'll be me, Sun Jian, and either Yuan Shu or Dong Min) may just be... total war. But before that, there are actually quite a lot of options and some of the major factions don't have much interest in war if you help them diplomatically achieve their aims; and I haven't seen a minor faction start a pointless war they can't win. They just get pulled into wars by the big factions.

So there is a push and pull of how helpful you want to be to factions (even though it often benefits you too) versus concern that they are getting too powerful and you need to turn on them. And so far, I've only had the AI pointlessly betray me once, when Kong Rong (who is more a mid-major power, he has his own unique bonuses and a really strong starting position) broke our deals and attacked me. But the end result of that was him becoming an extremely helpful and friendly vassal state to me.

The battles do follow the trend of the Total Warhammer of super-powered uniques being able to wreck normal units, though I think it's actually a bit less present in this game. Many generals aren't actually powerful, and a lot of times you want to keep them out of the fray so they don't get killed (which can happen pretty easily in the game). There are some that absolutely do make a huge difference and can change the course of the battle. But so long as your opponent has one too, the result is often that they duel each other and the winner has so little health left that you keep them in the backlines the rest of the battle to keep them safe.

Of course, if your opponent doesn't have one, these generals will wreck things up and negate a lot of need for strategy. I saw an image on reddit of a battle where Lu Bu on his own killed 900 enemy troops. This does all fit the mythology of the Three Kingdoms, so it doesn't feel out of place if that's what you're looking for. But I can see it being something of an issue if you're more interested in a pure, strategic experience. I'm not sure how much difference the records mode makes, I haven't touched it.

[Corvinus85]

51 minutes ago, Toth said:

Also: I really like reading the Three Kingdoms recaps. I don't understand a thing, given my unfamiliarity with the novel, but it looks like CA did a decent job for a change in their handling of the campaign map (even though I don't think I could ever appreciate a fake diplomacy where the only difficulty stems from everyone being insanely aggressive now that know Paradox games and how amazingly those handle diplomacy that actually feels somewhat real). I have grown out of this series however mostly due to the increased Hollywood-ification of the battles that robbed me of all the fun of actually using strategic maneuvering when everything devolves into a nonsensical clusterfuck of motion-captured duels. Given the setting... that actually feels somewhat right in its fantasy mode, but it sounds like the historical mode doesn't work much differently except for the heroes. So I give this another pass as well.

 

32 minutes ago, Fez said:

The diplomacy is actually a bit more nuanced then that, at least in the early- and mid-game. From what I've read, Emperors can't really interact with other Emperors though, so the end game of three powers (which in my game is looking like it'll be me, Sun Jian, and either Yuan Shu or Dong Min) may just be... total war. But before that, there are actually quite a lot of options and some of the major factions don't have much interest in war if you help them diplomatically achieve their aims; and I haven't seen a minor faction start a pointless war they can't win. They just get pulled into wars by the big factions.

So there is a push and pull of how helpful you want to be to factions (even though it often benefits you too) versus concern that they are getting too powerful and you need to turn on them. And so far, I've only had the AI pointlessly betray me once, when Kong Rong (who is more a mid-major power, he has his own unique bonuses and a really strong starting position) broke our deals and attacked me. But the end result of that was him becoming an extremely helpful and friendly vassal state to me.

I'd argue it also fits on the historical side, by having such aggressive AI. AFAIK, the Three Kingdoms period is considered to be the bloodiest period in China's history, with millions dead over the course of a century. I think a census done by the Jin dynasty early on after they united China showed less than half of the population of what had been near the end of the Han dynasty.